Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are locked in a burgeoning brawl over immigration

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), two
increasingly surging members of the Republican presidential
field, are starting to snipe at one another.

Their jostling on Wednesday and Thursday came over perhaps the
most contentious issue in the GOP primary: immigration.

While being careful to avoid
criticizing Rubio directly by nameduring an interview
with Laura Ingraham on Thursday, Cruz knocked the
Florida senator and several other Republicans for their
support of the 2013 immigration-reform package that stalled
in Congress.

"Talk is cheap," Cruz said.

The Texas senator pointed out that unlike Rubio, who now
says that border-security measures need to be implemented before
a pathway to legal status can be established for immigrants
living in the country unlawfully, Cruz believed in securing the
border first all along.

"The argument that we need to secure the border first is an
argument that I was making over, and over, and over again," Cruz
said. When asked whether Rubio supported Cruz's border-security
amendments, Cruz said Rubio "opposed every single one of them."

"As a voter, when politicians are saying the exact opposite of
what they have done in office, I treat that with a healthy degree
of skepticism," he added.

Part of Cruz's hesitation to attack Rubio directly is keeping
with his early campaign pledge that he would not attack fellow
Republicans during the campaign.

For his part, Rubio appeared to have a counterpunch at the ready.
He defended his own record by claiming that Cruz actually
supported some of his 2013 immigration proposals, including an
expansion of temporary visas and green cards, which in some cases
can create a path to citizenship.

"Ted is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country
illegally," Rubio said,
according to CNN. "In fact, when the Senate bill was proposed
he proposed legalizing people that were here illegally — he
proposed giving them work permits. He's also supported a
massive expansion of the green cards. He's supported a massive
expansion of the H-1B program — a 500% increase."

"If you look at it, I don't think our positions are dramatically
different."

Later on Thursday, staffers from both campaigns took to
Twitter to refute the opposing accusations.

Cruz campaign spokesmen Rick Tyler and Brian Phillips both
said that Rubio's claims were "false."

The Cruz campaign isn't alone in questioning Rubio's
seemingly shifting position on immigration.

Earlier this month, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said Rubio's
attempt to emphasize increased border security measures and
distance himself from the 2013 effort didn't
adequately acknowledge his role in crafting the bill.

"He was a co-author of the bill. It was a Rubio bill. It was a
Rubio-Schumer bill," Paul said, referring to Sen. Chuck Schumer
(D-New York). "So, he does have to explain it. I think it will be
a big part of things."

And in multiple interviews on Wednesday, Rubio was forced to
defend his comments that he would end President Barack
Obama's program allowing immigrants brought to the US as children
to qualify for temporary work permits, despite saying previously
that ending the program wouldn't be fair without an
appropriate replacement.